Source: 27 July 2010, “Ta Nea” newspaper, Economy Section, . . . → Read More: Greece: Champion of Inflation in Europe!]]> First (once again in Europe) in price increases in ten basic product categories and inflation in general for June 2010.

You spent several hundreds of Euros (or dollars) in the latest Smartphone model; perhaps an iPhone, a Blackberry, a HTC (like me!), etc. You have huge touch screens, lots of apps, fancy graphics and interfaces and you showoff. Admit . . . → Read More: You and your Smartphone!]]> You can use it to do amazing things and get a sound competitive advantage in sales and marketing

You spent several hundreds of Euros (or dollars) in the latest Smartphone model; perhaps an iPhone, a Blackberry, a HTC (like me!), etc. You have huge touch screens, lots of apps, fancy graphics and interfaces and you showoff. Admit it! One of the reasons of that purchase was just for showing off.

But you can certainly use your latest gadget to help you with your work. I mean REAL help. It’s way more than sending emails and having your contacts organized. Those are for kids. You can do great things and perhaps the most important application installed in your Smartphone is excel (for Windows Mobile or similar products for other platforms).

I will concentrate mainly in sales administration and help, but certainly you can use it for other things too (such as marketing functions, production functions, etc.). After all, we are all salesmen!

Let’s start!

Competition
In your clients’ place or inside a store – You can create a new spreadsheet and list your competitors’ products, prices, features & specs,  etc. You will be informed and get updated of all your competition. You can transfer that excel file in your office’s desktop and create a detailed report instantly. The next time your client is trying to evade a sales pitch by referring to a better product from the competition you will be better prepared and you will be able to cross-check her claims.

Note down quantities and stock of competitors in your clients’ warehouse. That way you can have a good measure on what expect or request for your recurring sales orders.

Pricing
Lost in tons of paper with different prices, discounts, terms (YEB, goals, etc.) for each of your client? Have a spreadsheet for each of your clients. That way you can easily find the right price and discount instantly. Create excel formulas for various pricing occasions. For instance, you can easily calculate demo discounts, invoice prices, VAT, etc.

Metrics (for sales & marketing)
You can definitely use excel spreadsheets and their capabilities for formulas to calculate a great amount of useful metrics that will significantly help you in selling and speed the decision making process. Some examples:

Gross margin
You can easily calculate your gross margin for each product or service so that you can easily take a decision concerning pricing and additional discounts. You can use the gross margin metric to your clients too if they are retailers: You can calculate their gross margin and find out if your proposal is attractive to them or if a competitor gives better margins.

Average Price Index (API)
Use the API to find out your pricing positioning compared to your direct and indirect competition. This will have a great impact on your branding.

Shelf Shares, Market Shares, Consumption, etc
Shelf share and market share will help your sales pitches significantly. If your market share in a product category is for instance 15% and the shelf share in a store is only 3% you have the “right” to request more exposure to that store. If you sell directly to the end user you can record the “consumption”  and track the increase or decline of recurring sales so as to apply corrective measures (more incentives, relationship marketing, etc.).

Stock Management
By all means, stock management is greatly facilitated through computers and smart devices. Be informed of your stock and procurement while on your way to clients. The next time you will be in a sales meeting you will know the exact delivery time of orders.

There are many more ways to use your Smartphone and facilitate your sales functions. Try to adjust those to your situation and to find other ways to improve the quality and efficiency of your work. Be creative and pro-active and you will see an instant increase in the outcome of your efforts.

An example:

For an investment of 100 million . . . → Read More: Bold incentives for new investments]]> New act for the development of the economic environment and businesses in Greece is about to be discussed in the Parliament tomorrow and to pass soon. In order to provide the necessary environment for new investments into the country, important incentives will be given especially in the field of taxation.

An example:

For an investment of 100 million Euros, the entrepreneur will not pay taxation till that investment yield profits of 40 million Euros!

Source: 25 July 2010, ” To Proto Thema” Newspaper, Business Stories, p. 4-5

70% of entrepreneurs state that they don’t have profitability anymore 40% of them cannot respond to their financial obligations 30% are thinking of downsizing 22,5%  may change the country . . . → Read More: Economic Crisis in Greece: Some Numbers]]> The following numbers have been published in the “Ta Nea” newspaper and are based in two separate researches of the:

• “National confederation of Hellenic Commerce”
• and the “Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry” 

70% of entrepreneurs state that they don’t have profitability anymore
40% of them cannot respond to their financial obligations
30% are thinking of downsizing
22,5%  may change the country in which they conduct business in order to pay less taxes.
51% of businesses may close if the economic environment will not change or improve in the next 12 months.
81,9% face decrease in turnout and profitability problems

There is no need to comment on the numbers! The situation speaks for itself!

In the same article of the newspaper:

By the end of this year there might be 60.000 businesses closed (so far this number exceeds 16.000) and 110.000 people may lose their job!